Elements of Hindu Iconography v3.c19.171

v3.c19.171

The goddess Chāmuṇḍā has four arms and three eyes and is red in colour. Her hair is abundant and thick and bristles upwards. She has in one hand the kapāla (skull) and in another the śūla, while the other two hands are respectively in the varada and the abhaya poses. She wears a garland of skulls in the manner of the yajñōpavīta and is seated upon a padmāsana. Her garment is the tiger-skin, and her abode is under a fig tree. Her seat, it is said in the Viṣṇudharmōttara, is the dead body of a human being, and she has a terrific face with powerful tusks. She has a very emaciated body and sunken eyes and ten hands. The belly of this goddess is thin and apparently empty. She carries in her hands the following things; musala, kavacha, bāṇa, aṅkuśa, khaḍga, khēṭakā, paśa, dhanus, daṇḍa and paraśu. To this description the Pūrva-kāraṇāgama adds that she should have her mouth open and should wear on her head the digit of the moon even as Śiva does; that her vāhana is an owl and the emblem of her banner an eagle. In one of the left hands she carries as we have already said a kapāla which is filled with lumps of flesh; and in another left hand there is fire. In one right hand she holds a snake. She wears in her ears kuṇḍalas made of conch-shell (śaṅkha-patra or kuṇḍala).